Chester's link to Lincoln: General Henry Clay Cochrane was at prez's side at Gettysburg

Henry Clay Cochrane traveled thousands of miles around the world as a Marine in the mid- to late 1800s. But it was probably one of his shortest military journeys early in his career that made him famous.

The Chester native earned the title of brigadier general after his Marine career ended. But his big moment in history came just as that career was starting. Cochrane was just 21 when he was one of 13 men selected to ride on a train from Washington, D.C., to Gettysburg with President Abraham Lincoln in November 1863. Cochrane was on hand when Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address at the dedication of Gettysburg National Cemetery. The battlefield is now one of the most famous and visited national parks and Civil War sites in the country.

The movie "Lincoln" depicting part of the 16th president's life and time in office came out in a limited release Friday and will be a nationwide release this coming Friday.

But Cochrane's meticulous writing style gives us some insight into the kind of person Lincoln was and at least a glimpse into that president's life that most did not experience.

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Cochrane kept extensive journals and diaries throughout his military career and one of his early writings was called "With Lincoln to Gettysburg." Cochrane was assigned to accompany the Marine Corps Band to Gettysburg, but it appears soon after the presidential party boarded the train, Cochrane found himself sitting adjacent to the president.

Cochrane describes the beginning of the ride in this part of the letter.

"The last car was a kind of president's or director's car with about one-third of the rear partitioned off into a room with the seats around it, and in this room I found myself seated vis-a-vis to the President," Cochrane wrote. "The rest of the car was furnished in the usual manner. I happened to have bought a New York Herald before leaving and, observing that Mr. Lincoln was without a paper, offered it to him. He took it and thanked me, saying 'I like to see what they say about us,' meaning himself and the generals in the field. The news that morning was not particularly exciting, being about Burnside at Knoxville, Sherman at Chattanooga, and Meade on the Rapidau, all, however, expecting trouble. He read for a little while and then began to laugh at some wild guesses of the paper about pending movements. He laughed very heartily and it was pleasant to see his sad face lighted up. He was looking very badly at that particular time, being sallow, sunken-eyed, thin, care-worn and very quiet. After a while he returned the paper and began to talk, remarking among other things that when he had first passed over that road on his way to Congress in 1847, he noticed square-rigged vessels up the Patapsco River as far as the Relay House, and now there seemed to be only small craft."

According to Villanova University associate history professor and Havertown resident Judith Giesberg, there was reason for Lincoln's poor physical appearance. According to her, Lincoln was suffering from the effects of what many historians to believe was variola major, a serious form of smallpox. Also, Lincoln knew he was speaking in a state that was not taking kindly to his political policies.

"People in Pennsylvania were conflicted about the Emancipation Proclamation that year," Giesberg said. "All over the state, people wrote to petition Harrisburg to prohibit black migration. They were worried about an influx of African Americans."

But that wasn't the only issue involving Pennsylvania at that time.

"A Pennsylvania judge who was a Democrat declared Lincoln's draft order unconstitutional," Giesberg said. "They tried to put a block on the draft in Pennsylvania. The Democrats were trying to paint Lincoln as being a tyrant and I wonder if he was thinking about that as he was riding the train."

According to Cochrane's writing, Lincoln was thinking about his speech on the train. After sharing stories for about an hour on the train, Lincoln knew he had at least some work left to do on his speech.

"'Gentlemen, this is all very pleasant, but the people will expect me to say something to them tomorrow, and I must give the matter some thought,'" said Lincoln, according to Cochrane. "He then returned to the rear room of the car. I mention this circumstance particularly because of the different versions given by his many biographers of the history of the preparation of his famous address delivered the next day. By some, you may remember, it is claimed that he wrote it on the train upon a piece of wrapping paper, by another upon a piece of paste-board, by another that it was written in Gettysburg on a yellow government envelope, by another that it was written in the house of David Wills, with writing materials which he asked to have sent to his room after retiring, and by others that it was done in Washington. My own belief is that the first nineteen lines were written in Washington and the remainder on the train and in Gettysburg. Lincoln said to Noah Brooks, one of his historians, before leaving Washington, 'My speech is all blocked out. It is very short.' The first sheet of the manuscript bore the heading 'Executive Mansion,' and those nineteen lines written upon it were never materially changed, the rest bore evidence of having been written and re-written many times, and was even changed in the delivery upon the platform."

Lincoln's party arrived in Gettysburg the night before the Nov. 19 speech, and according to Cochrane, there were some things about the battlefield that had not changed when they surveyed the grounds the next day.

"The scene presented that fine morning was one of great Grandeur," Cochrane wrote. " A full view of the battlefield, with the Blue Mountains in the distance, was spread out before us, and all about were traces of the fierce conflict. Rifle pits, cut and scarred trees, broken fences, pieces of artillery wagons andharness, scraps of blue and gray clothing, bent canteens, abandoned knapsacks, belts, cartridge boxes, shoes and caps, were still to be seen on nearly every side -- a great showing for relic hunters."

Cochrane wrote that the crowd of about 10,000 was ready for the showing of pomp and circumstance expected with Lincoln's arrival and impending speech on a pleasant Indian Summer day. What the crowd probably wasn't ready for before Lincoln spoke was nearly two-hour speech by Edward Everett, who Cochrane said was the orater for the day and the chaplain.

"Mr. Everett apparently regarded the occasion as one of the most notable of his life, and had written and rehearsed every word of that long address," Cochrane wrote. "His periods were polished, his diction graceful, and his language classical, but his great effort is forgotten."

Lincoln's effort was not nearly as long, less than five minutes, and immediately afterward, the president thought his words would be forgotten, as well.

"Its full import was not comprehended and it was received with faint applause," Cochrane wrote. "Lincoln thought that he had scored a failure, and it was not for weeks afterward that it began to dawn upon the minds of his countrymen that in his simple wisdom and eloquence something had been said which would live forever."

Giesberg agreed that the historical significance of Lincoln's words were not understood right away.

"It had very little immediate effect on those who were there because it was so short," Giesberg said. "Suddenly, he was done. It was so unique because of the afterlife of it."

According to other historical accounts, Lincoln became ill on the trip back to Washington. But in the following days as newspapers began to print the "Gettysburg Address," the speech gained significance as some of the most important words ever spoken by a president of the United States. While Lincoln's history was also short -- he was shot by assassin John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, and died the next morning at age 56 -- Cochrane's legacy as a Marine officer was just beginning.

Immediately after the Civil War, he was promoted to 1st lieutenant and he became a world traveler, though in mostly high uncomfortable military conditions. They included sailing on the USS Jamestown in the South Pacific Islands in January of 1869. While Cochrane commanded a Marine detachment on the ship, Commander William Truxton was the ship's captain. The problem, according to a magazine series called the "Adventures of Henry Clay Cochrane," is that Cochrane and Truxton rarely agreed on matters. Cochrane was a stickler for detail and order, while Truxton, to be kind, was more relaxed.

"With unfailing regularity the captain of the Jamestown turned out all hands on the first Tuesday of each month and read to them the Articles of War," the second part of the series reads. "For Cochrane, the Jamestown's skipper was a cross to bear from day to day. Cochrane felt him a poor seaman for as each time the ship's bearings were taken, great surprise was shown when it was learned where the ship really was.

"Further, the captain appeared upon deck in bedroom slippers and an old frock coat, a practice that sent the fastidious Cochrane into fits of anger."

The voyage on the Jamestown lasted three years and 51,000 miles, so there were likely many fits of anger. Cochrane even wrote at one point that he was ready to quit the Marines after the journey, but that didn't happen until 34 years later. Cochrane's journeys also took him to the Middle East, where there was an uprising in Egypt, to Moscow as an American representative at the coronation of Czar Alexander III, as well as being one of the commanders at Guantanamo Bay in the Spanish-American War at the turn of the century. He also commanded Marines representing the U.S. at the Universal Exposition in Paris to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. His final overseas assignment was as commander of the Marine forces in the U.S. relief expedition to China in the Boxer Rebellion.

Cochrane was placed on the retired list on March 10, 1905, the 42nd anniversary of his Marine commission.

He and his wife returned home to Chester where he was active in public speaking and civic activities. The president appointed Cochrane a brigadier general April 13, 1911.

Cochrane died April 27, 1913, when he apparently suffered a heart attack at his residence on 128 Fourth St. in Chester.

But that certainly was not the end of the Cochrane military legacy. His son, Edward Lull Cochrane, went on to become a vice admiral in the Navy before retiring in 1952. Then Henry Clay Cochrane's grandsons, Edward Lull Cochrane Jr. and Richard Lull Cochrane were each captains in the Navy, with Richard surviving the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

Yet another Cochrane who found himself in the midst of one of America's most historical events.